U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots

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U-TURN by George Barna and David Barton

Published by FrontLine

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road

Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismahouse.com

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked GW are taken from GOD’S WORD®, © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked THE MESSAGE are from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary English, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NAS are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The word church is capitalized when referring to the larger body of believers, the Church universal, as opposed to local congregations.

Many early American historical quotes have been used in this book—quotes made at a time when grammatical usage and spelling were quite different from what is practiced today. In an effort to improve readability, we have modernized some spellings, capitalizations, and punctuations, leaving the historical content unimpaired.

Copyright © 2014 by George Barna and David Barton

All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans

Visit the authors’ websites at www.georgebarna.org,

www.wallbuilders.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947918

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62998-024-9

E-book ISBN: 978-1-62998-025-6

CONTENTS

Introduction: Make a U-Turn. Now! 

1 A New American Dream

Focus on Values

America Is the Product of Its Values

Today’s Core Values

Beyond the Core

Implications of Our Shifting Values

Anticipating the Future

Long-Held Values, Still Embraced

Long-Held Values, Generally Rejected

Long-Held Values, Currently in Conflict

Long-Held Values, Currently Being Redefined

New Values, Currently in Conflict

New Values, Widely Accepted

2 New Beliefs for a New Era

Beliefs About the Role of Faith

Beliefs About God and Jesus

Beliefs About the Bible

Beliefs About God’s Activity

Beliefs About Eternity and Salvation

Morality and Worldview

Young Adults and the Flow of Beliefs

Historical Perspective on American Beliefs

3 Our Responsibility as Citizens

Uninvolved and Uninformed

Asleep at the Wheel?

4 The Search for Good Government

The Scourge of Lawlessness

An Integrity Deficit

5 The Fading Influence of Institutions

Adding Value

Why the Decline?

How Bad Is It?

6 America’s Family Makeover

Children at Risk

The Best Model for Families

7 Laws and Policies That Define the New America

Homosexuality

Homosexual Marriage

Abortion

Physician-Assisted Suicide

Gun Control

Debt

Entitlement Programs

Welfare

Public School Education

Immigration Policies

Business Regulation

National Defense

Taxation

In Summary

8 The Condition of the Christian Church

Measures of Health: Religious Activity

Measures of Health: Religious Belief

Born-Again Christians

Losing Cultural Influence

Cultural Influence

Where Is the Leadership?

9 Restoring the Government 

Rediscover the Bible

Know the Constitution

A Sequence for Action

Read, study, and teach

Perceive (recognize), defend, assert

Duty #1: Pray

Duty #2: Know and Judge

Duty #3: Speak Up and Speak Out

Duty #4: Take Action

In Summary

10 Restoring the Church

How to Be the Church

Personal Growth

Priorities and Purpose

Seeking Transformation

Meaningful Commitments

1. Community

2. Family

3. The disadvantaged and hurting

The Local Church

Leadership

Ministry emphasis and measurement

Conclusion: Parting Words

Notes

About George Barna

About David Barton

THE WISEST MAN who ever lived earned that reputation. He wrote some blunt and wonderfully insightful observations that we ought to heed. For instance:

History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, Here is something new! But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.

—ECCLESIASTES 1:9–10

Technology changes across the ages, but human issues and human behavior do not. There is nothing new in the problems we face right now as individuals or as a nation. The problems are new only to this generation. And the solutions do not really change either. The answers to human problems and behavioral challenges are the same today as they were in the past.

The United States is now entering its own version of the Dark Ages. Other once-great nations walked the same path we are traversing today, only to discover it led to their demise. Of course, we have convinced ourselves that we are different—that we are enlightened and sophisticated and will blaze a trail to new heights of human experience.

Alas, such self-deception is also nothing new. History reveals that it is what the people in every declining society do before they crash.

Maybe the saddest realization is that we knew this day of reckoning was coming. We have been receiving vivid warnings of its imminence for several decades. A popular expression reminds us that data don’t lie—and for more than a quarter century it hasn’t been lying. But we have ignored or denied the unpleasant realities and have delayed making the tough choices. We persuaded one another that if we stayed the course and maintained a positive attitude, things would turn around.

Except they didn’t. And on our present path they won’t.

So today America is mired in an undesirable position, and it is getting worse. And we know it.

We understand that our lifestyles and our standards of living are on the downslide:

♦ Seventy-four percent are dissatisfied with the way things are going in America.¹

♦ Seventy-five percent are trying to find ways to lead a more meaningful life.²

♦ Sixty-three percent believe America is in a state of decline.³

♦ Sixty-three percent argue that things in the nation are generally headed in the wrong direction.⁴

♦ Fifty-four percent no longer believe the United States is a country where anyone can get ahead and have a better standard of living.⁵

We likewise realize that the moral and spiritual conditions of America are in decline:

♦ Seventy-seven percent say religion is losing its influence on American life.⁶

♦ Seventy-four percent argue that the state of moral values in the nation is getting worse.⁷

♦ Fifty-seven percent recognize that religious freedoms are being more restricted because activist groups are trying to move society away from traditional Christian values.⁸

♦ Fifty-six percent believe that the Bible does not have enough influence on American society these days.⁹

We are keenly aware that government and politics are deteriorating before our very eyes:

♦ Eighty-five percent say Congress is more interested in serving special interest groups than the people they were elected to represent.¹⁰

♦ Eighty-one percent acknowledge that most voters are not sufficiently informed about the issues to vote wisely.¹¹

♦ Seventy-four percent are dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed.¹²

♦ Seventy-two percent perceive that America is more divided now than at any other time during their lifetime.¹³

♦ Seventy-one percent say the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed in how the United States turned out.¹⁴

♦ Sixty-seven percent say that our government will never change for the better.¹⁵

♦ Sixty-three percent indicate that they usually wind up being disappointed by the people they vote for.¹⁶

♦ Sixty-one percent agree that Hollywood has too much influence on American politics and social values.¹⁷

♦ Sixty percent admit that the media coverage of our presidential elections in unbalanced and biased.¹⁸

♦ Fourteen percent strongly believe that they can make a difference if they get politically active.¹⁹

♦ Six percent are very certain that the government has their best interests at heart.²⁰

All of this has led most Americans to worry about the future—theirs and their children’s:

♦ Seventy-seven percent of Americans are concerned about the future.²¹

♦ Only 17 percent say it is very likely that today’s youth will have a better life than their parents did.²²

It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s one we can take full credit for producing. As a nation, our choices over the past fifty years have been steadily redefining who we are. These choices of societal disengagement have put us on a path of self-destruction. A simple list of major policy and procedural changes embraced during that time paints a clear portrait of who we have chosen to be and the values we have chosen to embrace:

♦ Removing the Bible and prayer from public schools

♦ Legalizing abortion

♦ Legalizing same-sex marriage

♦ Government spending beyond its means

♦ Working on the Sabbath

♦ Protecting pornography as free speech

♦ Facilitating divorce

♦ Penalizing families, including for homeschooling

♦ Reducing religious liberties

♦ Instituting unprecedented expansion of entitlement programs

♦ Enabling government eavesdropping and data collection of all citizens and businesses

♦ Pursuing foreign policies that have severely weakened our economy and global relationships

♦ Creating countless laws through judicial rulings and executive orders

When the pilgrims put their lives on the line to sail across the ocean in search of religious and political freedom, their intent was to create a place where the God of Israel would be worshipped and served with as much passion and purity as they could muster. Over the course of the past three hundred years, we have recklessly diluted that founding purpose and turned our collective back on the beliefs and practices that made America unique and special. We have mentally (and, in a growing number of cases, on paper) rewritten our history to be one of a nation dedicated to diversity, tolerance, happiness, and comfort rather than a nation devoted to the pursuit of holiness, humility, submission to God, and gratitude for His blessings.

One of the running gags in our culture concerns the myth that men who get lost while driving refuse to ask for directions. That prideful persona is analogous to what has happened to America across recent decades. Every once in a while, uncertain of who we are, who we want to be, where we are heading, or what our ultimate national and personal goals are, we take a wrong turn. Add up decades of wrong turns and we are now hopelessly off track and utterly lost. We have no recollection of the original destination. But rather than stop and get directions that would enable us to return to the proper path, we keep moving forward, convinced that we are just one turn from getting back on track. As we get deeper and deeper into uncharted territory and all the signs convey our lostness, we secretly realize we’re in deep weeds.

Millions of Americans who are frustrated, or even scared, simply throw up their hands in despair and ask, What can we possibly do now? The answer is the same now as it always has been: ask God to forgive us and to lead us out of the wilderness where we have now spent so many years. And if we do so, we will undoubtedly be given a simple command: Make a U-Turn. Now!

If you have read the Bible much, then you know that God never immediately and painlessly removes people from their own mess. If we truly repent—which means to make a U-turn—then He will provide the guidance and resources we so desperately need. But because one of the inviolable principles of the universe is that choices do have consequences (as we so often teach our own children), we must experience the natural results of the bad choices we have made over and over again for decades. If we earnestly seek to follow God and follow His ways and commands, there can be restoration. It will not be simple, quick, or painless, and it may not even be immediately obvious, but that restoration can be ours—if we are willing to make that U-turn. Now.

Making a U-turn implies that you realize you were headed in the wrong direction. It means you need to follow a different path and that you are willing to do so. It represents a course correction in order to arrive at the original destination. U-turns require backtracking along some of the same ground that was just covered, admitting that such ground should never have been traversed.

But making a U-turn without accurate knowledge of how to arrive at the desired destination leaves you no better off than if you had simply continued down the original misguided path. In fact, it might be more painful because now you realize you’re on yet another wrong path and must agonize over making continued progress (again) toward an overtly wrong destination.

So let’s consider the new and improved plan. The first step is to know where you want to go. The second step is to acknowledge that the path you’re on will not get you there. The third step is to consider the possibilities and choose the best approach for arriving at your desired destination. The fourth step is to pull a U and begin to move toward the desired destination. The fifth step is to carefully monitor your progress to ensure that you do not wander off track again.

This book is designed to provide the information required to follow that plan.

Just a few words of caution before you dive in.

If you are seeking a new plan that moves America forward without full dependence on God and a determination to do things His way, this is not the book for you. We believe that without God at the center of the equation, we cannot possibly arrive at the right answer. Our success over the last couple of centuries is fully attributable to God’s blessings, and the current state of decline is fully attributable to our own arrogance and ignorance apart from Him. Unless we invite God to be at the center of our process and operate in strict accordance with His principles, we are doomed to continue our downward slide. Because He has proven Himself to be a merciful ruler, though, if we will humble ourselves before Him, there is hope. This book will describe the radical action we must take in partnership with God to restore the nation’s heartbeat.

If you are searching for a guideline that tells elected leaders how to get it right, this is not the book for you—it is not about them; it is about us. The only way America gets turned around is if each of us individually takes responsibility for the abysmal choices we have made and commits to doing what is right in God’s eyes. The required turnaround is not a top-down effort; it is a bottom-up requirement that puts the burden on your shoulders and ours.

If you are trying to find a simple, quick turnaround strategy, believing that the best solutions are always the simplest solutions, this is not the book for you. The accumulation of decades and decades of atrocious choices has annihilated the possibility of an easy restoration process. We are at the stage of the disease where all of the necessary medicines are harsh. But at least we still have the hope of becoming well again if we immediately begin taking that medicine and strictly adhere to the prescribed protocol.

America has been one of the greatest nations in human history. It can perhaps regain that status if we unite in following the precepts and principles that enabled the United States to be uniquely blessed. But one thing is necessary if we want to attain such greatness again: We must make a U-turn. Now!

ONE OF THE hottest political and business stories of the day relates to what has become known as Big Data. This is a new and rapidly growing industry based upon the flood of consumer data derived from tracking online behavior and other information available through new technologies. Every time you use the Internet, mobile devices, social media, and most other forms of communications technology, you leave behind clues about who you are, what you like, and how you respond to specific stimuli.

Billions of pieces of consumption behavior data are captured, and the Big Data professionals slice and dice it to make behavioral inferences that can result in smarter marketing decisions. Using sophisticated software, these data analysts search for and identify correlations and patterns that improve the ability to predict what choices people will make. With each passing month, data analytics are becoming more accurate and useful—and more mainstream.

Sometimes Big Data provides us with new and amazing insights into how people think and behave. Other times the results of the sophisticated algorithms and statistical models simply confirm what we already knew or suspected. Such confirmations may not possess the same wow factor as bold, original discoveries, but they are no less valuable. In a world where reality is often staged and contrived, truth is valuable whether it is a unique revelation or the confirmation of a time-worn truism.

One of the confirmations provided by data mining and analysis is simple but profound: you do what you believe. You probably put this truth into practice a thousand times in a thousand different ways every day.

♦ If you’re like most people, you don’t like wearing a seat belt, but you strap yourself in every time you get behind the wheel of your car. Why? Because you believe that it could save your life—and you believe that snapping the belt into place will protect you from a costly fine that would be assessed if you were caught not wearing it.

♦ You pray to a God you have never seen or touched and whom you cannot control because you believe that He exists, that He listens to your prayers, that He has the power to do what you ask, and that He is pleased by your prayers to Him. Even if your prayers do not get the desired response, you believe that you are better off praying than not praying.

♦ Occasionally you get angry with certain people or organizations. You do not stalk the people who made you angry and kill them. Why not? After all, you have the right to buy a gun or a knife. You’ve seen how murder is done hundreds, if not thousands, of times in movies and TV shows. With a bit of planning and by carefully implementing that plan, you would probably be able to accomplish the murder, and you might even get away undetected or exonerated by a court of law. But you don’t kill those who make you angry because you believe that there are more appropriate responses. You may even believe that you do not have the right to terminate the life of another person in response to your anger. Perhaps you are restrained from murdering others simply because you believe you would be caught and the consequences do not justify the behavior.

♦ Your child may protest having to get up early, get dressed, go to school, become bored in the classroom, and do homework instead of laying around the house in pajamas playing video games. Frankly, it might be a lot easier to let the rascal sleep in and enable various media tools to babysit the child while you focus on your challenges. Instead, you battle the child, deliver him to school, and prod him to do his homework after school because you believe that getting an education is a critical factor in becoming a self-supporting, fulfilled, and productive member of society.

In each of these situations and numerous others you can undoubtedly identify in your daily routine, your actions reflect your deep-seated values and beliefs—the things you are confident are true. Your values and beliefs fuel your choices, large and small.

FOCUS ON VALUES

Values are the guiding principles that combine with our core beliefs to affect our attitudes, opinions, choices, and behavior. Values identify what we maintain to be right and desirable in life, and they therefore influence our goals as well.

Before you arrive at a conclusion, you usually consider the alternative courses of action in light of what you believe about the moral, spiritual, relational, perceptual, cultural, intellectual, and emotional implications of those choices. Realistically, though, we rarely, if ever, take the time to painstakingly dissect every option according to all those dimensions. In most situations you instantaneously arrive at a decision based on the core values and beliefs you have carefully tested and embraced over time.

You reflect your values every minute of every day. Those values were primarily developed and adopted before you reached your teenage years. They were influenced mostly by your parents, the media to which you were exposed, and your understanding of the law and the dominant values of the culture you were growing into. Those values were either reinforced or refined largely by the key people in your life: your family, friends, and elementary and middle-school teachers. While our values occasionally change as we age, such shifts are the exception.

AMERICA IS THE PRODUCT OF ITS VALUES

Just as the behavior of every individual is an outgrowth of the person’s values, the same is true for nations. America is the product of the cumulative values of its people. It always has been and always will be. There is no way around it. As a person, you do what you believe; as a nation, our behavioral patterns represent what we, as a nation, value and believe. Our moment-to-moment choices are based on the points of view that emerge from our values and religious beliefs. Truly grasping this insight explains more than you realize about the past, present, and future condition of America.

More than three hundred years ago many groups of disenchanted European citizens risked their lives to journey to the New World and initiate a new life in a land that came to be known as America.

The driving force behind people’s decision to abandon their homeland, leave behind friends and perhaps family, brave the treacherous ocean swells and despicable living conditions on overcrowded ships, and start from scratch in unsettled lands to the east—ignoring those dangers in favor of a new start—was prompted by the force of values. Once they landed and began making the best of their new situation, the lifestyle of the residents of the New World consistently reflected those values. Fed up with the values in their native country, these brave souls put their lives on the line to be true to what they held to be right, important, defensible, and true.

Some had made the journey to seek religious freedom. Others were compelled by oppressive politics and government. Others sought the thrill and adventure of the gambit. A share of the new arrivals needed a fresh start after ruining their reputations or experiencing run-ins with the law in England. No matter what the motivation was, their values compelled them to board the ship and settle the new land.

The more you study our nation’s beginnings, the more difficult it is to overlook the role of values in the shaping of the emergent country. The central documents that defined our nation—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights—are the product of the values of the people, the Founding Fathers, and the nation’s leaders. The compelling motivation to leave their